Fisher-Price iXL 6-in-1 Learning System (Pink)

That's right this is a learning tool and not a game system with some learning capabilities. Also (and this is a huge plus for me) unlike the horrible Leapster Explorer it will NOT urge your kids to "connect" to their store and download (pay for) games. Seriously, that was horribly lame of Leapster, and not being able to skip an advertisement movie that is BUILT into the darn system is beyond infuriating. Sorry, rant on the Explorer is over, but as a parent it is very trying to have your kids marketed to and EXPLOITED in this way. -----If you don't want to read a long post, scroll down for the recap/summary.----- I just bought my second and third iXL unit. One to replace the one my daughter finally destroyed (it involved our 50+ pound dog), and one to give as a gift to my niece! That's how much I love this product, and after trying both the MobiGo and the Explorer, I have come to the conclusion that this really is the ultimate learning tool. It all started a few months ago when I bought a second hand iXL at a local kid's thrift store. I usually go there to buy cheap games for the MobiGo (and before that the Explorer). They only carried duplicates of what my girl already had, so I asked the store owner of what he thought about the new LeapFrog tablet that was on sale. He opened the cases to both the LeapFrog and Vtech tablets for me and I got to play around with them. They both looked like good toys but reacted slow to my presses, even though they were calibrated. They also did not look durable enough to be in a house with two kids. The owner told me that they have had a lot of returns for broken tablets due to "accidents", so I asked if he had any suggestions. Lo and behold, he takes out this little clamshell brick thing and drops it on the ground in front of me! He picks it up, turns it on, and starts a game. Then drops it on the ground again! The game was still playing. The screen was responsive, and there was no slowdown that I could see. It was also pretty cheap, about the same price as the Vtech tablet, which was about $40 less than the LeapFrog tablet. I was about to buy the new iXL when he told me they have a few used ones in stock that are not yet on the shelves. We looked through their inventory of used iXL systems and found one in good condition that had 4 games pre-installed on it! Since I have a good relationship with the store owner (I do his computer repair work and he helps me with cool new kids toys), he didn't charge me anything extra over the $30 it cost me for the used iXL system. I also bought two used game CD's they had, which cost me an additional $10. Eventually I hunted down all the games I could in thrift stores and on craigslist and after that, bought 4 more games during the recent (and awesome) sale at Toys R Us. They offered 2 iXL games for the price of 1 (buy one get one free), so I purchased 4 for $40, or $10 each! I would NOT buy the games at the ridiculous $20-$30 price Amazon (Fisher-Price) charges here. Either go to your local thrift store or wait for sales. If anything, Fisher-Price needs to lower the cost of these "games" to about $10-$15. They really don't give you that much value for the money, but my daughter loves them so I put up with it. All you get is a few (usually 3) very basic games, some extra themed pictures for the coloring book, a voiced story book, and some re-skins for the apps that are pre-installed on the iXL. Honestly, anything over $10 for this "game CD" feels like a gigantic rip off, which is why I love thrift stores, where I usually find used copies of iXL games for $5 to $10 USD. I have so far bought every single iXL game in existence (15 in total), and only 4 of those were new (from the sale). If Fisher-Price was selling these games for $10 or so (for new games), I wouldn't have to shop around. I simply refuse to pay $30 for something that costs $.99 cents (or is free) on my Android phone, so why should I have to shell out the big bucks here? The beautiful thing about the iXL is that all the games are stored on the handheld itself, or on the SD card that you can purchase separately. I had a spare class 6 8GB SDHC card around so I plugged it into the system. It's pretty hard to get to it (you need to unscrew a tiny screw), so it's safe from prying hands. The card comes loose every time the system is dropped but there is a quick fix. Simply take some duct tape and put little strips of it on the inside of the cover, making a sort of buffer. This way the fit will be so tight that even in extreme falls (down the stairs) the card will not be jarred loose/out of place. The fact that everything is stored on the handheld also means NO LOST CARTRIDGES WHOO HOOOO!!! This is a huge design win for Fisher-Price. Even though MobiGo cartridges are pretty cheap (some costing less than a buck at your local thrift stores/garage sales), it is a pain to have to go buy a game your child loves because it was misplaced, only to later find it in the most amazing places ever (like in an ice cream carton or in the dog's house, I don't even bother asking how they got there anymore). All these games are first installed on your computer and through the iXL software can be transferred to your child's system, along with music (mp3) and pictures (jpg). The system software is also pretty good at converting images to fit the small screen, so they don't look mega distorted or weird and actually fit really well. The best part is that the child can then draw on these pictures using the stylus! My daughter likes giving me a beard and a mustache, and her mom gets cat ears and whiskers. Since buying the iXL her writing skill has improved dramatically because the software helps you "draw" the ABC's and teaches you to count. She now has better penmanship than I do (this is not hard, as I write with both hands, swapping whenever one is tired and everything comes out looking like chicken scratch anyway). I also like that the games really are educational. They range from collecting things in certain order (teaches counting) to matching things (teaches memory), to cool game like challenges! All the games are perfect for my girl and she enjoys them all. They are also all very intuitive, much more so than the Vtech and LeapFrog stuff. My daughter had some trouble learning the Explorer, but got used to it pretty quickly; she had more difficulty with the MobiGo but once again knew how to do everything in a few days. With the iXL she was zooming around in no time (like an hour or so) and has left our phones and laptops alone! Yeaaah! Finally, I love the little personalized animated stories they have on each "game" CD. After you give the software some information about your child (name, favorite food, etc), it incorporates them into the stories! My daughter loves seeing her name on vehicles, signs, and other things in the story. She also loves the fact that everyone loves banana's (which is her favorite food). This is a really cool touch and I wish they would use this more often. I wish every game maker uses this actually. Your child can read along with this story, controlling the page turning, etc, OR have the story read to them by the iXL in full voice over mode. This sounds really good and works well as a bed time story that you can enjoy with your child while holding them until they go to sleep. The only major drawbacks I have to the system (other than the high game price) is that the batteries last only a few days of moderate use; the fact that their servers are laggy (certain things can take up to 5 minutes to "update" after installing the CD); and the poor decision of not including a video playback application. Honestly, this would be so great in the iXL. I could play videos on my old handhelds, why not have it here? The hardware can obviously handle it. I hope this helps you decide what handheld you want for your child. Vtech and LeapFrog have some good offerings out there and other than the child exploiting Explorer are well worth the price, but the features of the iXL make it a clear winner (especially for the price). -----Recap/Summary Start----- Pro: - iXL has no advertising - in game or out. Your child will not have to sit through a movie they can't skip that pretty much tells them to go bother you to buy them more games if you love them. - The iXL software ("games") are loaded on your PC, and transferred to the iXL handheld. No more lost cartridges! - The SD slot is a huge plus, allowing you to store countless MP3's, games, and pictures! - All games are small in size, allowing you to store them on your PC/Handheld without much space requirements. - The MP3 player is a huge plus, and you can listen to music while playing! - The Art studio is great. Your child will love drawing on your digital family pictures! - The coloring features are pretty good, but are outshined by the ability to paint on your photos (at least for my daughter and her friends). - The story that comes with each game is great and can be personalized to include your child's name, favorite food, etc. You can read along with them or have the iXL read them aloud while you relax. - The responsive touch screen is awesome. Yes it's resistive, but who cares? It works much better than the Vtech and Leapfrog competition and is not as slow! - iXL hardware is pretty responsive and stable in general. I have not seen any slow down with any games or software. I have not had any crashes or problems, and have the firmware set to update automatically. - The iXL is super sturdy. It can survive countless falls down the stairs and even survived a fall into the bathtub, where it was drenched completely (the batteries did not live through it). After drying it simply had to be re-calibrated and worked until our dog decided to well, eat it. That's what my daughter gets for trying to teach him how to read. Con: - No video player. There is no video playback on a device that claims to be able to do it all. Come on Fisher-Price, get with the program and release a player in one of your many firmware upgrades. I would love to be able to watch my daughters favorite videos on this little gem. - The battery life is horrible and there is no re-chargeable pack like for other handhelds! Apparently one is made by a third party but it has some horrible reviews. I get around this by using re-chargeable batteries, but a charge pack should be common sense in this day and age! Almost as common sense as a video player... - The iXL is bulky. It looks like a block. I realize this is to make it more kid friendly, and allow it to survive drops but it also comes with many drawbacks, like being a pain to carry in my pocket, so my daughter carries it in her little purse. - The firmware is upgraded a lot. I don't know why, but every few months there is an "update" that takes about 10 minutes to complete and requires recalibration of the touch screen. It doesn't add or fix anything that I see, so why have it be so frequent? - The lower portion of the iXL has a lot of wasted space. It has the volume, home and action buttons, along with a speaker. Why not put a D-pad there, along with a few more buttons. It would function very well as a DSi like handheld, and more buttons are always a good thing. It would also allow game makers to be more creative with their games instead of limiting all actions to the touch screen. - Game price is ridiculous. Really, the game CD's are just little app's that you could get for free on the Android market. The extra pictures for the paint program are cool and all, but you don't get that many! I will admit that the story books and games are mostly good, but everything else is just a re-skin of the software that is already on the iXL, so why charge $30 for it? This highway robbery just forces the parents to look for better deals on line, on craigslist or thrift stores/garage sales. Fisher Price is losing a lot of money because out of the 15 games that my daughter has, I only bought 4 brand new ones from a retailer (and that was during a sale)! - There is a limited selection of games. So far only 15 have been released (at the time of this review). Fisher-Price needs to release more games, and have them be more varied. They don't all have to be based on licensed characters. You can create your own heroes. As long as the game's have some educational value I will continue to buy them! -----Recap/Summary End----- I will update this if I come up with something new.

We got this for my daughters 4th birthday. She loves it! It was very easy to load the software, music and pictures. We purchased 2 extra software titles and she has more than enough to do. We don't let her play it all the time, maybe 30 mins - 1 hour a day. So that keeps it super exciting and she asks to play it often. The volume control is wonderful as it's default setting is pretty loud. All of the games offer some educational value and they are easy enough for her to figure out on her own but challenging enough to keep her playing. I would recommend this toy to anyone looking for something fun for their child. I hope they come out with more games for it in the future. The best part about the games is that there are no cartriges to switch out. We bought rechargable batteries and have only had to charge them a couple of times. It's a great little product so far. ***2/2/11 UPDATE- So last week our little pink iXL stopped working. It had not been abused, dropped or handled rough. My daughter was playing it and suddenly all of the music and one of the software titles were missing from the player. I investigated and the iXL was no longer recognizing the SD card. I reset it a couple of times and updated the firmware. After that, it would only turn on to a black screen. Pretty disappointing. I called Fisher Price and they were great to deal with. They e-mailed me a return label and will send out a new unit when they receive the old one. But can I expect the same thing to happen with the new unit after only 1.5 months of play time? I hope the iXL doesn't turn out to be a huge waste of money with the game unit, 2 software titles, SD card and rechargable batteries. I changed my rating from 5 starts (because initially we really loved the iXL and its capabilities) to a 3 star due to the issue it has. I will write another update when we receive our new unit. I'm hoping, but not holding my breath, that the new unit will be a problem like our original.

My daughter loses interest in all toys after a few days. Some she will want to hang onto even though she doesn't play with them, but the IXL has been by far the best toy I have ever bought her. I bought it for her for Christmas last year. When it got to our house, I opened it right away to make sure it would be ready by Christmas morning. I had no issues what so ever with the set up or downloading anything. (I am a nurse and not the best with computers by the way). I was so impressed and excited about this toy that I had to give it to her before Christmas. My mother in law got her a DS for Christmas last year and I was afraid she would throw the IXL aside, but she only played the DS a few times. Over the past year, she has loved adding new pictures to it, new songs. Anytime she hears a new song she likes, she gets me to add the song to her IXL. We drive a lot (like 1 hour of driving at least daily) and she plays with her IXL every day. The only game I have bought for it is the Disney Princess game, and she plays the games over and over. There are several little games on it and they all have different levels, so she has never gotten bored with them. I really love the fact that she has her own little computer with her own favorite pictures, games, and songs that is only hers and she can listen and play with them whenever she wants. She is 5 now, and I was worried that she might be out growing this toy, but she still loves it. She takes it to church at least once a week and all the kids love playing with it- 3 years to 7 years. One great note, once while at church, she dropped this toy down a flight of stairs and no harm done! It has been so durable. I really can't say enough good things about this toy.

My grandmother bought this for my 3 year old daughter. I compared prices and Amazon had the best price comparing it with Toys R Us (almost $20 less). The toy is great and my daughter loves to draw and write in it. We love the fact that you can include pictures and the music she likes to hear (more or less like an IPod). The games come as software, which you install with your computer, and don't have to carry CDs or games with you. When we go out to an appointment or to a restaurant and she gets bored, it work wonders.The only thing I didn't like, and it's why I didn't give it 5 stars, is that the cover scratched very easily and the battery lid comes off very easily too. But overall is a very educational toy and a good alternative to non-educational and addictive video games.

This little learning system is very easy to hookup to your computer and load and personalize to childs likings.I bought one in pink for my 3 yr old Grand Daughter ,she LOVES it !!!! , and hasn't put it down since she got it.With the Digital Reader, Game Player, Note Pad, Art Studio, MP3 Player and Photo Viewer makes for so much fun.I love the built-in memory of up to 150 MB,Is built good and is very durable ,batteries last for ever, has a SD slot for memory expansion to add more if needed.I found it to have very ample memory to add all her favorites.The player did come w/ a few cute songs ,but i also loaded 40 of her own full length kiddo songs,and 40 pictures into her music and photo gallery.This learning system has so many fun filled activities to do to keep her occupied for hours on end.She loves all the learning programs,games,art gallery,and with her very own personalized music and photo gallery that i added.What she loves the most is her music.She loves loves loves, this little learning system is the is the best gift ever !!!.. now she has her own little hand held notebook, she is so proud !! The software that came w/ it loaded into my computer and updates in a matter of seconds , was very fast to update! The program that comes w/ to upload and personalize your childs favorites is very very easy to use ! Very fast and easy, am VERY PLEASED with this product !!!!